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This is the place to come for all UK based people just starting out with or already following a Zero Carb diet.

Zero Carb simply means that we eat only from the animal kingdom. So absolutely no plants that grow above or below the ground are consumed, including cooking oils such as sunflower, coconut oil, nut oils or olive oil. We prefer to cook our meat with butter, lard and ghee.

There is no ‘but what about…..’ allowed here. There is no room for any ‘whataboutery’ here. We eat meat, drink water (and some drink tea or coffee) and some eat eggs and dairy if they are tolerated and cause no inflammatory or digestive issues.

ZC is primarily about healing our bodies after years of sub-optimal eating following the standard UK diet (SUK) or needing to heal and regain health after years of low fat, vegetarian or vegan diets that have resulted in damage to the digestive system, deficiencies and poor health.

Weight loss: Most people turn to ZC after seeing successful weight loss from following a LCHF or Keto diet. We ask you to leave your keto at the door here because with ZC you don’t have to count macros, count calories or worry about meeting protein / fat ratios. In fact there is no counting needed at all here!

Yes, you can lose weight following a ZC way of eating, but weight loss is not our primary goal. We are here to heal. Weight loss happens as a wonderful side-effect of eating optimal food.

Please don’t start ZC with an expectation that you will lose weight. Some people don’t lose anything for a long time. Some people even gain weight. If you have been starving your body of essential nutrients for many years, you may find that you initially gain weight while the body makes good use of your food to repair and re-build your cells from the inside out.

“But, but, but, but….aren’t carbs essential…?” This is what we hear from a lot of people when they find out we only eat meat. The simple answer is ‘no – carbs are not essential in any way to our health’. There’s no such thing as an essential carbohydrate.

If you would like to contribute your ZC story, have useful articles to share or know of a great UK based online butcher who delivers superb meat, then do let us know!

So, I often take the time to read posts on other carnivore groups and there is one thing that I notice a lot. People that are using food as an emotional crutch.

There is no denying that people love food and enjoy the physical pleasure of eating, even when the foods eaten are not that good for your health.

Another aspect is the preparing and cooking of food. We all know that with ZC food shopping, food prep and cooking is simplicity itself. However, this often removes another ritual that people struggle to shake off – and what do you do with all your extra free time out of the kitchen…?

Food is fuel – not entertainment

Food is fuel

I believe that food is fuel, but it should also make us feel good and be a pleasure to eat. Who’s mouth doesn’t water at the thought of frying up a juicy steak or some crispy bacon rashers, right?

However, our biological programming to seek out pleasurable foods as well as the cultural aspect around eating means that we have developed very emotional attachments to some foods. We are drawn towards eating certain foods because they act as an emotional crutch for us.

Emotional connections

Forming new connections

Even following a carnivore-style way of eating we can still develop new emotional crutch-like habits towards our food and drink. With me it is coffee – it gives me that much-needed boost in the morning and I find it hard to get into the right frame of mind for work without a large mug of steaming coffee.

Our emotions can also derail our ZC progress. How many times have you read posts where someone has fallen off the wagon because of an emotional crisis happening in their life? Lots of times, right?

In times of high anxiety and stress, we will often return to eating those familiar foods that made us feel good in the past, quite often with distressing results that only act to make us feel worse. We can use food as a tool to distract us from dealing with the real issue at hand.

Grieving your old favourite foods

Overcoming grief

When you first start out on your ZC path you can also go through a period of grieving. Yes, actual physical and mental grieving for all those foods that you will have to sacrifice for your health, and this loss of the familiar can often be the reason why so many people fail on ZC. They are simply not emotionally strong enough to let these things go.

I went through a grieving stage too. The idea that I would never eat a cream cake again, or eat cheese straws or chew my way through another bag of wine gums actually shocked me! I grieved for all these things – and many more favourite treats too. It was quite a sad experience to go through.

So, what can we do to get through the grieving period and stop using food as an emotional crutch in times of crisis?

Acceptance

Come to terms with life

Firstly, we need to accept that we are going to face stressful times in the future that will test our resolve. It’s inevitable. The death of a loved one, losing a job, the breakdown of a relationship etc. That’s life and this stuff happens. Accept it.

Realising what is causing your desire to dive head-first into the trifle bowl is important, but you also must stop and think about your actions. Question everything. Will eating the entire contents of the biscuit tin help you get you ex-back, get your job back or bring back a deceased loved one? No. No, it will not.

Giving in to your emotional eating will feel good for approximately 30 seconds or until the bowl or biscuit tin is empty. Then what? You start to feel even worse.

So not only are you grieving for your loss (whatever that is) but you have also sabotaged your physical and mental health meaning you are less able to cope with what is really going on in your life at this moment.

Respect yourself

Respect and value yourself

At times like these choose to respect yourself instead. Go and do something to distract you from using food as an emotional crutch. Instead, do something positive and nice for yourself.

Make a list of your non-food related favourite activities. Copy your list and stick it to the front of your fridge, freezer and food cupboards. Make sure this list is bright and very visible. The next time you go to open the fridge in a negative emotional state stop and choose something from your list to do instead.

Choose a few of your favourite things

Make a list of your favourite non-food things

Book yourself a massage, get your nails done, go swimming or take a yoga class, take a long bath, take the dog out for a long walk in the countryside – anything to distract your mind and treat yourself with kindness.

Remember that you are better than this. You don’t have to self-sabotage your health because of a crisis.

Get organised

Prepare yourself

If your stressful situation or grief is driving you to eat and you really cannot distract yourself, just make sure you are well prepared.

Stock your fridge with plenty of carnivore-friendly foods. Stock your cupboard with jerky and tinned fish. Sometimes we can cave into mindless eating where it doesn’t matter what food we have in the house – we will eat it because it is there.

Making sure what is there is carnivore friendly can really help in situations where you cannot escape and easily distract your mind. You will be so glad you did this.

Remember that all stressful situations and emotional reactions are transient – this too shall pass.

Or maybe an all meat diet could be the basis for anyone to launch themselves off, towards good health.

I am doing well on this diet, I promise. There is N=1

My wife is experiencing similar benefits to me. There is N=2

This Carnivore Diet Success Story series, is to help show maybe it is really, N=Many. Once you have read all the stories I have posted. Then I would recommend you visit Meat Heals for more incredible Carnivore Stories.

If you have a Carnivore Diet success story you would like to share. Please get in touch with me.

Or maybe an all meat diet could be the basis for anyone to launch themselves off, towards good health.

I am doing well on this diet, I promise. There is N=1

My wife is experiencing similar benefits to me. There is N=2

This Carnivore Diet Success Story series, is to help show maybe it is really, N=Many. Once you have read all the stories I have posted. Then I would recommend you visit Meat Heals for more incredible Carnivore Stories.

If you have a Carnivore Diet success story you would like to share. Please get in touch with me.

Or maybe an all meat diet could be the basis for anyone to launch themselves off, towards good health.

I am doing well on this diet, I promise. There is N=1

My wife is experiencing similar benefits to me. There is N=2

This Carnivore Diet Success Story series, is to help show maybe it is really, N=Many. Once you have read all the stories I have posted. Then I would recommend you visit Meat Heals for more incredible Carnivore Stories.

If you have a Carnivore Diet success story you would like to share. Please get in touch with me.

Like this:

I have been low carb since January 2016. I started with the Ketogenic Diet, and I have been on the Contemporary Carnivore Diet(eBook) since October 2017. I love this way of eating but there are only so many times I can blog about how great I feel. So I decided to get other people to tell you how great they feel instead!

A great in depth post from Tracy here.

If you have a Carnivore Diet success story you would like to share. Please get in touch with me.

Interview with Tracy

Introduce Yourself.

HI! My name is Tracy Minton, age 55, married for 7.5 years to Don Matesz. I’m an author and health & personal development coach, holding several certifications, including as a Holistic C.O.R.E. Counselor, and Certified Clinical Hypnotherapist, among others. I have a Masters in Oriental Medicine, however, I am currently no longer a state…

I have been low carb since January 2016. I started with the Ketogenic Diet, and I have been on the Contemporary Carnivore Diet (eBook) since October 2017. I love this way of eating but there are only so many times I can blog about how great I feel. So I decided to get other people to tell you how great they feel instead!

I was very happy when Heather decided to try the Carnivore Diet, I would never try to force it on her. So I was glad she recognized the potential benefits, and more importantly, she enjoys it.

I’d just asked her how much coffee she’d drunk each day when pregnant with me.

‘They were small cups,’ she added hopefully, as if my neonatal caffeine addiction would have been worse if they’d been large cups. When she breastfed the baby me without having first primed the system with coffee, apparently, baby me would go apeshit. And after a few slugs of the good stuff the next attempt at feeding would result in a happy, contented, caffeinated baby me.

So caffeine is addictive, to the extent that, with enough effort from your mother, you can even be born addicted to it. Don’t ask me for tips on giving up coffee either, because I have none. Not only am I addicted to consuming it, I fetishise it, in that I buy green beans and lovingly roast them myself…

Take my friend, oh what name shall I invent to hide his identity, Ignatius. Iggy, let’s call him, has chronic stress in certain areas of his life, and is a lot more rotund than would be thought healthy. His diet is standard western, hence rubbish, he drinks ad lib (good name for a drink, you heard it here first) and wears trainers but rarely exercises. Not only do the stairs seem a lot steeper these days, he sometimes has little memory lapses.

Iggy doesn’t know it, but he has chronic inflammation in lots of his cells, including plaques, or neurofibrillary tangles, in his brain. But he doesn’t think there are any real problems because, despite his belly and breathlessness, he can get through his working day just fine, and that’s what counts, isn’t it?

So there’s this thing called apoptosis, or the scheduled dying-off of cells. Under…